How long should you meditate a day?
If you want to notice effects, the clearest benchmark is a trial with people who had never meditated: thirteen minutes a day improved mood, attention and memory at eight weeks, but not at four. And more minutes don't guarantee more benefit: a review of over 200 trials found no evidence that bigger doses worked better than smaller ones.
How many minutes do you need?
Fewer than people tend to think. Classic meditation programs ask for forty-five-minute sessions, and that has created the idea that "real" meditation takes a lot of time. Recent evidence points elsewhere.
A randomized trial compared two groups of beginners: one listened to a thirteen-minute guided meditation every day, the other to a podcast for the same amount of time. At eight weeks, the meditation group had less negative mood, better attention, better working memory and less anxiety during a stress test. At four weeks, those differences had not yet appeared.
Is it better to meditate for longer?
Not necessarily. A meta-regression pooled 203 randomized trials of mindfulness-based programs, with almost 16,000 participants, and looked at whether the "dose" — hours of practice, number of sessions, program length — predicted better results.
The conclusion: no evidence that bigger doses helped more than smaller ones with anxiety, low mood or stress. The programs worked compared with controls, but not better for being longer.
So what matters more?
Neither study directly compares short and long sessions at the same frequency, so there is no settled answer. What they do say, together, is this: a brief daily practice produced measurable results at eight weeks but not at four, and longer practice did not translate into better results for anxiety, mood or stress. Short sessions, kept up for weeks, are a reasonable bet.
According to Meditar, this changes how to start: pick a length you can keep up on your worst day, not your best. If on a bad day you only have five minutes, make your practice five minutes.
A practical guide
- If you have never meditated: five minutes a day for the first week or two. What matters is building the habit.
- Once it happens without thinking: move up to ten or fifteen. The beginner trial cited above used thirteen.
- If you can't fit it in one day: five minutes, or a couple of slow breaths. Better than skipping the day, and much better than quitting because "there's no time".
- Give it eight weeks before deciding whether it works for you. Four is too few.
What about meditating more than once a day?
It can help, especially if you use different meditations for different moments: a short one for focus in the morning and another for sleep. But it is not necessary. One daily session kept up over time is what the studies that work have in common.
Five, ten or fifteen minutes, with the voice you choose
In Meditar, meditations come in different lengths, so each day's can be the one you can manage that day. And you pick the voice that guides you: you listen before choosing and keep the one that feels right. It is free to start: download it here.
If it is your first time, here is how to start meditating, step by step.